The Sunday Sermon Archive

Dear Friend,

Pope Leo XIII has elevated St. Pascal Baylon to be the patron of all Eucharistic societies and congresses. This humble Franciscan lay brother was born May 17, 1540 and died May 17, 1592

"Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them to little ones." (Today's Gospel)

As a poor uneducated shepherd boy, at the age of seven, St. Pascal could not attend Holy Mass every day so he placed a small statue of Our Lady in the fork of a tree, were he could pray. He listened attentively for the bells from the Franciscan Chapel so that he would know when Mass was about to begin. He could not leave off tending the sheep so he would attend the Mass spiritually with the greatest devotion and yearning toward Jesus in the sacred mystery. Our Lord one day rewarded this intense longing of his for his Eucharistic God in a miraculous manner by vouchsafing him the lovely sight of the Blessed Sacrament borne toward him high aloft in the sky, by the hands of angels. Similar Divine favors were shown him again and again in life.

At this tender age he was already accustomed to hair shirts and mortifications. It is said that angels often came and instructed him. He followed the words of Jesus that He has given us in today's gospel: "Take up My yoke upon you, and learn of Me, because I am meek and humble of heart; and you shall find rest to your souls for my yoke is sweet, and My burden light."

At the age of thirty-four he entered the religious life as a Franciscan lay brother. He was known for his perfect obedience and his love for the Blessed Eucharist. He spent every spare moment in front of our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament. "When he was prevented from staying there bodily, he was there in spirit, because Jesus was the treasure of his heart and our heart lives where it loves rather than where it happens to be for the moment."

This is indeed something for us to seriously consider in our own day. "Our heart lives where it loves rather than where it happens to be for the moment." We see in this a most profound truth.

Today we see that we are often separated by great distances and obligations from being present before God in His house. There are plenty of false churches around us including those of the modernist Novus Ordo, but the true House of God (a true Catholic church) is often at a great distance for many of Christ's faithful. As members of the Mystical Body of Christ we are never far from Him in spirit even though we may be far from His Eucharistic Presence.

St. Paschal teaches us what we must do when we find ourselves unable to do that which we need to do. We must attend Mass spiritually and we must make spiritual Communions. In this way our hearts are not stuck wherever our bodies might be, but on the contrary they live where they find Him whom they love in the Blessed Sacrament.

We have often heard that God accepts the desire for the deed. But, we all too often fail to comprehend the powerful significance of this truth.

"But I say unto you, that whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath already committed adultery with her in his heart." (Matt. 5.28) It will be useless for us to say: "but, I never touched her." God judges the desires of the heart more so than the actions of our bodies. On the Day of Judgment there will be many condemned to the fires of Hell because of sins of their hearts rather than sins of their bodies.

Likewise there will be those who will receive an eternal reward for the desires of their hearts rather than the actions of their bodies.

Indeed, I would venture that there are many who receive Our Lord in the Holy Eucharist while their hearts are far from God. Such souls receive very little if any merit and perhaps on the contrary are more offensive to God than if they remained away. On the other hand there are those who cannot physically receive but who do so spiritually with great attention, love and devotion and merit tremendous graces from God.

Let us in our prayers beg the intercession of St. Paschal, that he might not only show us the true love we must have for Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament, but also the means to attain it. Let us keep in our mind the idea that "Our heart lives where it loves rather than where it happens to be for the moment." And let us always keep in check what we allow our hearts love and where we allow them to live.

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